First you should know I am a very active follower. I take recommendations very seriously as well as any incoming replies.

Then there is my ‘social media’ inbox. I’ve basically just set my GMail to move all Twitter follow requests to a separate folder for easy sorting and general management. Then I begin the daunting task of opening each new followers Twitter page to scrutinize their stream.

One time I went a week without checking my ‘social media’ box and then spent the next 2 hours checking 350 Twitter profiles. It’s not so bad once you get in the groove. I try to keep each profile view down to a couple seconds looking for a couple key points:

The user’s bio/website/profile pic

I like to know I am following a real person and this could be the first giveaway. I also personally stay away from people pushing MLMs, porn and press release feeds.

The user’s conversation quotient

Your conversation quotient is simply the ratio of total tweets to total replies. The average is said to be around 25% so that’s more or less my bearing for success. The higher your conversation quotient, the more likely I am going to follow you back.

You can learn more about the conversation quotient as well as view in depth statistics at twitter-friends.com.

Any signs of robots

I don’t get along with robots for some reason so I just avoid them. This includes follow schemes and auto replies.

And that’s about it. It all boils down to following real people talking to other real people. It’s becoming easier and easier to see through the bullshit, so don’t kid yourself.